Without You
by beautiful-surreal
Summary: A very sad story about Jesse and the girl he loves. Set to the song 'You'll Be In My Heart' by Phil Collins. Sequel: /s/5933707/1/Ill Never Leave You


**Disclaimer:** I don't own what I didn't create.

**A/N:** Hello everyone. Ok, so I got a little crush on Jesse, and I decided to write something about him. This is a straight fic, meaning that he's not gay or bi in this story, and it's also very, very sad. I don't hate Jesse. It just turned out this way. I'm thinking of writing an alternate ending for those of you who like happy endings, so review and let me know if you want one. If I have at least five requests, I'll write one. Or if I can't stand it any more and have to write one. To be honest, the 'other ending' will probably be a lot better than this bit, because I was really trying to squish a big story into a short song.

Enough ranting from me. If you read it, please enjoy it, and if you manage to get all the way through it PLEASE REVIEW! Thank you very much. ;)

* * *

You'll Be In My Heart- Phil Collins

_Come stop your crying_

_It will be all right_

_Just take my hand _

_Hold it tight_

The first time I saw her was from a long way off. Serena McAmon was her name, and she was beautiful to my eyes. She attended the North Duel Academy with me, and while she liked dueling, she wasn't obsessed with it, like a lot of duelists tend to be, and she had a music deck. Well, it tended to lean in that direction, anyway.

The first time I saw her, her boyfriend was breaking up with her. I had just come around the corner of the archway from the courtyard leading to the cherry orchard, and there she was. There were pink cherry blossoms over her head, and a few petals were floating down to her, and landing gently in her soft, light brown hair. I didn't want to interrupt, but I leaned against the archway with my arms crossed over my chest, and I watched them, even though I couldn't hear anything. She seemed to take it very well, apart from the sadness in her eyes- until he left.

_I will protect you_

_from all around you_

_I will be here_

_Don't you cry_

I guess she didn't want to cry in front of him, but once he left, she just sat under the cherry trees and cried. I've never liked seeing anyone cry, it sort of wrenches at my heart, and she was no different to me, so before I knew it, I found myself at her side, and she was looking up at me with her watery blue eyes and a half-wasted paper tissue in her hand. I crouched down next to her to be on her level, and I smiled gently at her, and she managed to weakly tug up one corner of her mouth to show that she didn't mind me being there. I didn't really know whether I should offer to shake her hand or not, so I just rested my wrist on my knee.

"I'm Jesse Anderson. It's my second year here." I introduced myself to her, and she nodded to acknowledge what I said, wiping a few tears out of her eyes. I sat down next to her with my legs crossed, looking at her.

"I'm Serena McAmon. This is my second year too." She managed to say before her voice broke and she looked at her lap. I looked at her sympathetically.

"I saw what happened." I mentioned softly, and she looked up at me sadly, tears already falling again. I put my hand on top of hers without thinking twice, and I smiled slightly- and hopefully encouragingly- at her. "You'll be alright."

She twitched an appreciative smile at me, and gently squeezed my hand appreciatively.

_For one so small,_

_you seem so strong_

_My arms will hold you,_

_keep you safe and warm_

_This bond between us_

_Can't be broken_

_I will be here_

_Don't you cry_

We had a strong bond ever since then. We were in almost all the same classes, and I found out that she came from a musical background; since her mother was a singer and that her father composed music for movies. She was the youngest of four children, three girls and one boy, and I found that her roommates teased her in good humor for singing while in the loo. Personally, I found that kind of funny too, to be honest.

I found out that she had a large family in America, on her mother's side, and that she had countless cousins. She had a huge heart, and every birthday and Christmas, she would make her family hand-made goods, whether it was food, jewelry or a hand crocheted pillow case- it was always very well made.

She loved her mother most of all, because growing up, her father was never around. So she never got to know him too well, because he was always on business trips around the world to make music for the movies. Her mother did have a tendency to drink though, whenever she was sad or depressed, though Serena never minded too much. Where most girls hit the ice cream when they were depressed, her mother hit the vodka and tequila. It was mid-winter when the headmaster came to our classroom door.

"Serena McAmon?" He called out into the silent room, where most students were bent over their history work, either studying or asleep. Serena stood up from where she was sitting next to me. The headmaster looked at her sadly and asked her to talk with him in the hall.

She didn't come back. Our teacher got a phone call three fourths of the way through the lesson, much to his embarrassment, since it was a test today, but that was all that happened. When the bell rang for the end of class, Mr. Ainon, our teacher asked me to pack up Serena's books for her, and to bring them to her head of house.

I was very worried about her when Ruby found me and told me where she was just as I was dropping off her books. When Ruby told what she knew, I set off running.

Serena was under the same cherry tree I had met her under, half-covered in snow, crying her eyes out. When I got to her, I fell to my knees, and threw a thick blanket I had snatched up before leaving the building around her shoulders, and I pulled her into my lap and held her in my arms like I had before. She could barely talk for crying, but I could make out a few words of what she said.

"Jesse… my momma… car… hospital…" A fresh wave of tears cut off her speech, and she just sobbed into my shoulder for awhile, until the tears slowed down to a stop. She swallowed wetly, and I only barely heard her, her voice was so quiet. "My momma is dead. Car crash." I tightened my arms around her, giving her a gentle squeeze, and I rested my head back against the tree trunk as she turned her head into my shoulder. I felt her pain, and there were tears in my eyes too.

Her momma had died because of drunk driving, and she never really knew her father, so the only people she really had left was her siblings and myself. Serena meant a lot to me, and I knew that I'd look after her after she lost her mother.

She actually moved on fairly quick. When I asked her about it one day, she told me why.

"My family has always believed that after someone close to us dies, they haven't actually left us." I expressed surprise at that, and she smiled at me. "It's not actually that hard for me to imagine, really. I mean, if I died, I would want to make sure everyone was ok with it before I left too." I didn't like the thought of her dying, and I think she noticed, because she leaned over and gave me a hug and whispered in my ear: "I would never die on you." I then relaxed and smiled. She gave out the greatest hugs out of anyone I knew.

_'Cause you'll be in my heart_

_Yes, you'll be in my heart_

_From this day on_

_Now and forever more_

The headmaster had announced at an assembly last week that I would be representing North Academy as the top student of the school and that I would be going to the main, or center Duel Academy for a year as a transfer student. It was an honor, but I couldn't help but think of how I'd miss Serena while I was gone. The thing was, I didn't have to worry about missing her, because she went and asked the headmaster a favor after the assembly.

I didn't know what she had done until she and the headmaster turned up at the ship I had already boarded that was soon to head out on the eve of the last day. She smiled at me happily while our headmaster talked quietly to the ship's captain who soon smiled and bowed her on board. That was one of the happiest moments of my life; when I realized she was coming with me, and I rushed down to meet her.

_You'll be in my heart_

_No matter what they say_

_You'll be here in my heart, always_

We had rooms next to each other on the ship, and we shared the same bathroom for the week we had together on board. We usually hung out in my room and went over Duel Monsters strategies, or I just sat there and listened to the songs she was writing. Normally, she was too shy to sing in front of people, but she trusted me, and I always listened to her singing, and I thought she had a wonderful voice.

She told me that she had persuaded our headmaster to let her come with me by promising to write him a song that he would give to his wife this coming Valentine's Day. I hadn't even thought about it, but now that I did, I wondered what Serena would like for the 14th of February. I wanted to get her something, because she really meant something to me. She was always there when I needed her, and I never wanted to see anything bad happen to her- because then my heart would burn with worry.

_Why can't they understand_

_the way we feel_

_They just don't trust_

_what they can't explain_

_I know we're different but,_

_deep inside us_

_We're not that different at all_

Did I mention that Serena can see duel monster spirits too? She thinks Ruby is the sweetest thing she's ever seen, and I met her friend Himaya for the first time, when we met Adrian Gecko. We were just standing on the starboard side of the ship, watching the ocean and leaning on the railing together after cast off. When we turned around, there he was, causing Serena to tense with surprise, and when she relaxed, there was Himaya, her friend the African tiger, right by her side. I was a little surprised when I saw that her friend was a tiger, because I believe that a person's duel monster spirit is an embodiment of their character. I never thought of Serena as wild or feral or any thing. Anyways, I was touched that I met her.

We shook Adrian's hand and went back to our room- because since we hung out in it together so much, it might as well just be _our_ room, rather than just _mine_- and Himaya followed us all the way, seeming to lean into Serena's leg like a domestic house cat, and Serena sighed quietly when she did it sometimes.

"So is that tiger your friend?" I asked Serena, shutting the door behind me after following her in, and she turned around and looked at me peacefully like a cat happily warming itself in front of a fire. She was probably thinking. She did space out on me sometimes- and I'd have to say her name three times or shake her a little to bring her out of it. I loved her for it, really.

"Hm?" She murmured, and I could practically see the question I had asked settling in her head. "Oh. Himaya?" she asked looking down and stroking one of the tiger's ears, making it purr happily and close its eyes. "Yeah, she's been my friend since before I can truly remember. I think I can remember seeing her through the bars of my crib." She said, her eyes growing distant, and I got comfortable on my bed. She told wonderful stories when she was like this, and I leaned back against the wall, watching her as Himaya curled up at feet as she sat on the rug. "I would play with her when I was little, and she helped me learn how to walk. My momma told me that, because she could see spirits too." She sighed, and I frowned sadly. I knew she still missed her mother sometimes. "Himaya would wave her tail under my nose, teasing me, and one day I had had enough of her teasing and got up and ran after her. Momma was so surprised." Serena smiled, and it made me smile too, seeing a little baby Serena chasing after Himaya as a cub in my head. A moment of silence passed where Serena quietly looked at Himaya and thought, and I looked at her.

"She's beautiful." I complimented, and Himaya looked up at me with a feline smile and a purr while Serena blushed.

"Th-thank you." I smiled at her. _You're beautiful too._ I couldn't help but think.

_And you'll be in my heart_

_Yes, you'll be in my heart_

_From this day on_

_Now and forever more_

Serena really was like a tiger. It was just a dormant trait inside her. We had arrived in the other dimension a few days ago, and I admired her courage and strength that kept her- and everyone around her- going. I believe that since she arrived here with us, she had discovered more about herself than she ever had before. As it turns out, she can heal people, and throw some kind of power around. When the harpy first attacked Crowler, she threw something faster than lightening, and the harpy fell from the sky like it had been shot. I never found out what she had thrown, and she didn't even know herself. She told me that when she saw the harpy trying to carry Crowler off, she had felt something in her hand, and she had thrown it without thinking twice about it. It was only when we found Blair with the scratch on her arm in the hallway that we discovered what it was.

"Blair!" She exclaimed, falling to her knees to look at the wound on her new friend's arm. Jaden was holding Blair off of the floor in his arms, and Serena didn't have to get any closer to look at it. It was glowing yellow like a neon sign, and it stank like nothing else, to be brutally honest, and Serena looked nauseous looking at it, but she seemed to be thinking quickly.

"It hurts…" Blair whispered after telling us what had happened to her and Marcel, and Serena lifted her hand so that it was a few inches away from the wound with a pondering expression on her face with her head tilted slightly to the side. She seemed to be slightly out of it, and we were all watching her, but she didn't seem to notice.

"I wonder…" she murmured, and she lifted her other hand to meet with the first, and she concentrated. There was a sharp flash of light, and we all cried out and flung our hands out to cover our eyes. When the light faded, nothing had changed much, except that Blair's wound now looked several days old, Jaden was blinking stars from his eyes, and Serena was looking surprised and severely drained. "Oh." She said faintly, and Himaya appeared in a crouch behind her. "So that's what happens." Serena's eyes then rolled up, and she fell backwards onto Himaya's supporting back.

"Serena!" I think I must've shouted the loudest.

_Don't listen to them_

_'Cause what do they know_

_We need each other,_

_to have, to hold_

_They'll see in time_

_I know_

I had carried Serena back to the nurse's office while Jaden carried Blair, and I was so worried about her. Ms. Fontaine examined her, and it seems like she had 'spent too much energy too quickly' in her words. What she had done was heal Blair somehow, and I wouldn't leave the office until she had awoken.

Ms. Fontaine examined Blair and said that she had a fever but that she didn't have enough of the right sort of medicine to cure her. Then Bastion- one of Jaden's friends- mentioned seeing a stranded submarine out in the desert. Everyone knew that there would be a first aid kit on a submarine, and so a mission to go and get the medicine and possible supplies was proposed, and I was asked to come, but I didn't respond until I felt Serena squeeze my hand where she was lying on the bed, causing me to look at her face. She was just barely managing to crack her eyes open, but she smiled reassuringly at me, and she mouthed the words: 'Go. I'll be fine.' Before she fell back into slumber.

I looked at her. Her hand was small and soft in my hand, but she was resting. I didn't want to leave her, but she herself had said she would be fine. Besides, we had to get that medicine. I squeezed her hand gently before getting up and going out with the search team.

I needn't have worried about her, really. She and Himaya made a very strong team. By the time we got back and discovered the duel ghouls, she was holding down the fort pretty well. She had just woken up fully restored when the first ghouls started pounding on the door. It had startled her like heck to start with, but after making Ms. Fontaine promise not to report her, she started punching and kicking them all to oblivion. Apparently she had taken tae kwon do for six years. She didn't aim a kick very well once, and she discovered that even a ghoul wouldn't get back up after you kick him between the legs.

By the time we managed to get back to Ms. Fontaine's office, the ghouls were all piled up in corners of the hallway, moaning for a reason other than being ghouls. We saw her actually take one down as we walked up.

She was leaning against the wall, looking bored beyond belief, when we heard a ghoul coming around the other corner, and she looked up in that direction before going back to playing with her necklace and looking out the window.

"Duel…" an exhausted looking third-year guy came dragging his feet around the corner and started going a little faster when he spotted Serena. "Duel me…" he moaned, and when he stopped a few feet away from her, she looked at him sarcastically. "Duel…?" the zombie actually managed to ask a question before Serena pushed off the wall and faced him.

"Sorry." She said, not sounding sorry at all. "I'm not interested." –and she delivered a roundhouse kick to his head, and when he fell over and didn't move, she shook her foot out with a sigh. "Poor guy." She muttered, and then she looked around and spotted us guys standing there with our mouths open. She smiled in delight and turned towards us. "There you are! Did you get what you went for?" she asked, and I blinked and moved forward, Jaden, Jim and Axle following.

Blair was treated and she was better in no time. Before we knew it, Bastion's teacher Dr. Stein (I think that was his name) had made contact with us, and I finally met the patriarch of my family of crystal beasts- the Rainbow Dragon, and Serena was by my side as I dueled with Jaden against Yubel to send us home.

I don't how to explain it. Somehow I just knew. I wouldn't be going back with them. The Rainbow Dragon opened up the portal to the other dimension to send everyone else home, and the last thing I can remember seeing is Serena's face. I can still remember it as clear as crystal; the look of terror contorting her beautiful face as she reached out towards me and never managing to reach me as she vanished into the sandstorm.

_When destiny calls you_

_You must be strong_

_I may not be with you_

_But you've got to hold on_

_They'll see in time_

_I know_

_We'll show them together_

Hi. It's Serena. We lost Jesse. I can't believe we lost Jesse! I-I… losing him, it… shatters me. I've lost so much already… I never got to know my father, I lost my boyfriend and then my mother, and now Jesse! He's so important to me… I don't know what I'd do… _without him._

I was lying on the sofa in Jesse's room at the Central Duel Academy, crying. The room smelled like him, felt like him. I could almost hear him coming out of the bathroom as he towel-dried his hair, leaving it in a right mess. I could almost see his beautiful smile that shone in his eyes, and I swear I could feel him rub my arm and telling me not to worry about him. I couldn't stop crying, I missed him so much.

"Jesse…Jesse…" I choked out between my sobs, and my arm was dangling off the couch when I heard Himaya make her chattering noise that most house cats used when they were stalking birds- and I sort of felt her push up under my hand, making me look at her. "H-Himaya?" I hiccupped. Himaya chattered, and my eyes widened. "There's a portal? In the graveyard? I'm going." Himaya moved out of my way as I clambered off of the couch and threw together some supplies into a rucksack Jesse had in a corner of his room before high-tailing it to my room to gather some of my things as well before turning and running towards where Himaya told me the portal was, the tiger in question galloping by my side.

"Serena?" I was already almost there, under the cover of the trees when I heard Jaden call out to me. I would recognize his voice anywhere, and I skidded to a stop and turned to look for him.

"Jaden?" I asked, hoping somebody would answer, and Jaden bloomed out of the darkness, looking at me incredulously, a hiker's backpack on his back with a sleeping bag on top. Winged Kuriboh was floating by his side.

"What are you doing here?" He asked me brusquely. "You can't be heading towards that portal, can you?" he asked me with a highly doubtful tone of voice, looking at me with those strong kind of eyes that I'd always associated with mothers scolding their children. I clenched my hands around the straps of my- Jesse's- rucksack. Suddenly I was scared, and I was shaking.

"Yes." I answered truthfully, and he looked surprised. "I'm going to look for Jesse. Himaya told me there was a portal on the Royal family's gravesite." I said, looking at a tree's roots. "I- I know I'm not the greatest duelist or anything, but-" I said as I looked back at Jaden. He was looking at me respectfully. "-I'm going. I need to find him or-" I stopped speaking abruptly, looking at another tree. _–Or I don't know what I'd do… I can't live without him._ Jaden sighed.

"I can see neither of us can be talked out of going." He admitted with a sigh, and looked at me with a half-hearted half smile and offered me his elbow in a shadow of chivalry. "Care to join me?" He smiled softly with sad eyes as I did the same and took his elbow. "Strength in numbers, huh? Some army." He sighed, and we moved on towards the portal.

Everyone else caught up with us there. It was like we weren't destined to go alone. Alexis and Jim, Axle, Hasselberry, Chazz, Cyrus, Bastion, and Atticus had followed us to the portal, even though the last three were rather reluctant to go. Still, they came anyways.

It was a long and hard journey to find Jesse, and we had more than our share of troubles along the way. Bastion was the first to leave our group to stay with an Amazon woman called Tanya he had met sometime before I knew him- saying that by staying with her, he'd gain valuable information. I didn't question him, I just wanted to find Jesse and I hoped we'd stay as intact as we were as a group. We went through a gigantic door to another realm of this dimension, and the door disappeared behind us just as Jim started having some trouble with his bandaged eye. I started hanging back with him then to make sure he was all right, even though I felt impatient to find Jesse. It was then that I found out just how great a friend Jim was.

We were camping under some cliffs for the night, and almost everyone had gone to sleep apart from Jim and Axle, who was standing watch just outside the light of the campfire. I couldn't sleep. I was slumped towards the heat of the fire, and I couldn't stop looking towards the east, where I felt sure Jesse was. It was almost a nervous twitch, and I had just stated making a little pile of tiny sticks when he spoke up.

"Making a dam, are we?" Jim had a lovely Australian accent, and it was very soothing to listen to. I looked up at him to see his one brown eye looking wisely up at me from under the brim of his hat. I twitched. Jim leaned forward. "You've had something on your mind, haven't you?" he asked carefully, watching me. "Something serious." I looked up at him, starting to shake, and I saw a very serious look in his eye. I looked away, and after a few seconds, I nodded.

"I dunno if you could… call it that…" I managed to say before my throat closed up on me. A moment passed.

"I've noticed talking about it seems to help." I looked up at Jim again, and looked him in the eye. I could see nothing there in his face that would do me harm, and I realized I could trust him. With anything I told him. I swallowed and looked into the fire, my hands in my lap. I felt so vulnerable.

"Jesse's very important to me." I admitted. "He was there for me when no one else was. Whenever I couldn't see the point in life anymore, he was the one to bring me back up. He showed me what a smile and a kind word could do, and he showed me how easy it was to love." I said, shaking and looking back at the sky. I could feel the tears starting to gather in the corners of my eyes. "I first met him when the love of my life broke up with me, saying he thought he made a mistake in going out with me. Made a mistake in loving me. Jesse found me under the cherry tree, and he wasn't expecting anything from me. He was just there. For me." I said brokenly. "He was there when- when my mother died." A tear slipped out of my eye, and I drew in a shaky breath, looking down at the earth between my fingers, sniffing as more tears streamed down my face, shaking violently. "I never told him. I never told him where I was going or what had happened, but he found me. Under the cherry tree, and he knew. And I- I can't lose him!" I gasped, and the tears were fully coming down, making my eyes and my lips feel hot and my cheeks incredibly wet. I looked up at Jim, my sight blurring. "I can't lose him." I cried, and I saw Jim lift his arm out to the side sympathetically, offering me a hug if I needed one.

So I got to my hands and knees and crawled over to him, not trusting myself to be able to walk. My eyes were too blurry to see when I got close to him, and I felt his hands on my shoulders guiding me gently like a mole back into it's den, and I sat next to him and rested my head against his shoulder and I cried until I had no more tears left to cry.

When my shaking stopped and my eyes started getting heavy, he was looking into the fire with a sad sort of look in his eyes.

"You haven't lost him, Serena. None of us have." I heard him say just as I was drifting off, lulled by the warmth and solidness of his body, and I think I sighed a reply just as I was slipping into sleep.

"You're a good guy, Jim." I think he smiled at me.

_'Cause you'll be in my heart_

_Yes, you'll be in my heart_

_From this day on,_

_Now and forever more_

Jim had been sent to the stars along with Alexis, Hassleberry and Chazz by the time I had found Jesse. Jaden had been taken over by the Supreme King since that night, overridden with despair, and I had stuck with Jim all the way, and once he was gone, Axle was my last hope. It was Jim who had seen that Jaden could be saved by the use of his eye of Oracalcum, and it was Axle who saved Jaden. Then it was I who was left to heal him with Cyrus, Zane and Aster, who had found us somehow, even though I hadn't known the last two were in this dimension. It was a group made of odds and ends, and we somehow picked up Crowler and some strange girl who seemed to be Adrian's step sister- who we lost to none other than Adrian himself along with Aster who fought for her life.

It seems as though I was the only one who hadn't gotten lost along the way.

When I saw Jesse, I nearly died. He wasn't Jesse anymore. Not the Jesse I knew, and I nearly gave up hope, but- I felt that Jesse wasn't gone, somehow, and that was when I started screaming his name, halfway through his duel with Zane.

"JESSE!!!" I suddenly screamed hysterically as we were watching the match, and everyone jumped and looked at me besides myself. "I know you're in there somewhere! JESSE!! Come back, please!! Please!! I need you Jesse! JESSE!!! JESSE!! Jesse, I love you!!!" Everyone's eyes widened when they heard me confess to a guy who was no longer himself, but it seemed to have an effect somehow, and Jesse's deck glowed a powerful bright gold, and the dark Jesse froze, his orange eyes seemingly trying to revert back to their usual turquoise, but the power that had him was stronger. The orange eyes settled once again, but the deck didn't stop glowing, only growing a little dimmer. The dark Jesse smirked, and said in Yubel's voice:

"That's enough from a little pest like you." –and his right hand reached out towards me, and I only had enough time to gasp and for my eyes to widen as the dark light hit me. The last things I recall are the sensation of flying through the air and my good Jesse's voice screaming my name in fear.

_Oh, you'll be in my heart_

_No matter what they say_

_You'll be in my heart, always_

_Always_

I was trapped inside my dark Rainbow Dragon, and I had woken up when I heard Serena calling my name. I didn't know where I was, but it felt secure, and I could hear Serena's voice clearly. She was screaming hysterically.

"JESSE!!!" her voice rang loudly inside… where ever I was. "Come back, please!! I need you Jesse! JESSE!!!" her voice was very frantic, and my heart was burning worse than I ever felt it burn before. She was calling for me and I didn't know how to help her. "JESSE!!" I was looking for somewhere to jump to when an empty space opened up before me like a window for me to see through.

I could see myself dressed in black leather with orange eyes and no sleeves, dueling Zane in a desert in what looked like a round dark field spell. Standing outside of the ring was Cyrus, Crowler and Serena who was screaming, looking straight at me. At the real me, where I was trapped. "Jesse," I heard her scream. I _really_ wanted to go to her, to hold her and comfort her. "-I love you!!!"

I swear my heart skipped a beat as my eyes widened and my mouth dropped open. She- she loved me. She really loved me. I could see the truth in her eyes, and my heart exploded into fireworks. I was so happy! She loved me, and I loved her, and I felt myself growing stronger. A golden light started to glow strongly around the edges of my window, and I felt myself starting to return, but I felt something similar to being thrown out, and it felt familiar. In a blink, I was back where I had been before, and I saw my darker self say something to Serena, and it threw my right hand out at her, and I saw a look not of fear, but of surprise on her face as she was thrown through the air by a black force that had shot from my darker self's hand. What I felt was a heart-stopping terror as I leaned into the glass of the window vision.

"SERENA!!!" I screamed as I watched her body land limply in the sand before the window disappeared. "SERENA!!!" I screamed into the darkness of this place. I had screamed myself hoarse before anything changed. There was a blinding white light, and I had thrown my arm up to shield my eyes, and when the light faded, I was very weak, but I was free. I looked up from where I was lying on the floor, and I saw Jaden standing across from me with his duel disk out, glaring at a spot somewhere above me. "Where-" I croaked, and Jaden looked at me in concern. I pushed myself weakly up to all fours and looked at him. "Where's-" I coughed because of the roughness of my throat. "-Serena?" I asked, and Jaden's look fell into sadness, and my stomach sank at the sight.

"Jesse…" Jaden started sadly, and I swallowed, preparing myself. "Serena's…" he said hesitantly, and I looked up to see Jaden looking grief-stricken and hesitant. He sighed silently. "Serena's gone."

I didn't see any more, my arms supporting me shook and gave out, and darkness of defeat took me over. _I don't know what I'd do without her._

_Oh, you'll be in my heart_

_No matter what they say_

_You'll be in my heart, always_

_Always..._


End file.
